Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
First off I’d like to point out I have absolutely no intention to be rude to SunniPath as it is a wonderful service helping the Ummah in this time of corruption. I’ve read many fatwas regarding music, singing, and dancing and completely agree with them. On one of the personal websites of one of the “staff” here at SunniPath (I won’t disclose which one), there is a video recitation of the Asma Ul-Husna. Is this “singing” of the names of Allah considered haraam or is it permissible considering that:
1) It has proper Islamic content
2) It has no instruments (I believe)
Also please specify two things: 1. Whether it is permitted or not and also 2. whether it is mustahabb or merely “permitted”
If it won’t be too much trouble can you please include what type of music is permitted. I know instruments are haram but certain things with instruments like Qu’ranic recitation etc… I have thought are actually mustahabb.
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.
Singing the praise of Allah in poetry is permitted, is the content of the poetry itself is permitted. One does not, however, “sing” the Qur’an itself, as this is not proper.
As for instruments in music, the mainstream position is that only the duff is permitted; and in the Hanafi school, the stronger position is that the duff itself is only used on occasions such as marriage and other festive times–though many Hanafi jurists allow the use of the duff in religious songs, and thus such use is not condemnable, though piety would normally entail striving to avoid it.
And Allah alone gives success.
Faraz Rabbani